VANCOUVER – It’s too soon to lift all COVID-19 restrictions, including indoor vaccination testing, as infections rise in British Columbia due to a ‘drop-all’ approach to controlling the virus, a doctor says retired from the emergency room.
Dr. Lyne Filiatrault said the end of the vaccination card on Friday after masks were no longer required earlier this month sends the wrong message as Omicron’s highly transmissible BA.2 subvariant is spreading rapidly.
“We think there’s going to be another wave of BA.2 and we don’t think it’s any different than what other jurisdictions are seeing, like Ontario and Quebec, because we’re making the same mistakes,” said Filiatrault, who speaks for Protect Our Province BC, a group of health professionals, scientists, and advocates calling for evidence-based policy.
However, Ian Tostenson, president of the BC Restaurant and Food Service Association, said the vaccination card is no longer needed in a province where 91 percent of residents over the age of 12 have received two doses of a vaccine. vaccine.
“It was more about providing an incentive for people to get vaccinated,” Tostenson said.
He said he believes 99 percent of restaurants will no longer check vaccination status, even if they can choose to continue taking the step.
The vaccination card was never required at fast-food outlets, which have not been cited for having outbreaks, he said, adding that extra vigilance around sanitation at some restaurants is likely to continue.
Filiatrault said that sanitation is not the main problem related to an airborne disease, although ventilation has not yet been highlighted as important, especially since BA.2 is highly transmissible.
People with two doses of a vaccine should no longer be considered “fully vaccinated” when that leaves others vulnerable to reinfection with COVID-19, as seen in jurisdictions such as England, he said.
Some members of his group advocated for third doses to be included on vaccination cards, Filiatrault said.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, a provincial health officer, announced this week that fourth doses will be given to people 70 years of age and older, extremely immunocompromised people, and indigenous people 55 years of age and older, since the protection of doses given six months ago is decreasing.
Henry also said that about 50 percent of the population now has developed immunity to COVID-19, either through vaccination or infection.
Filiatrault said he is worried about a rise in hospitalizations, much like in England, where restrictions were lifted too quickly and people were reinfected with COVID-19.
Fifty-nine percent of British Columbians age 18 and older have received a third dose of the vaccine, which Filiatrault said is not high enough to spread BA.2.
Henry has also announced that weekly, not daily, data on the number of hospitalizations, for example, will now be provided, but Filiatrault said that leaves people uninformed about the status of the virus as the pandemic continues.
Sewage surveillance will continue to provide a picture of how much virus is in the community, Henry said, but it is currently only done on the Lower Mainland.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on April 8, 2022.
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Reference-www.thestar.com